Adorno

The Danube Metropolis 83

part of Adorno’s life from his early youth, he continued to devote him-
self to it for the time being as a writer forced into being original every
day and in the absence of a position in the Philosophy Department that
would guarantee him financial independence. He was not rescued from
the fate of a private scholar either by his good relationship with Cornelius,
or by the breadth of his intellectual interests, even though these brought
him into contact with a number of professors and a variety of discussion
circles. As a philosopher and musicologist who also knew about com-
posing, a further difficulty for Adorno was the circumstance that his
extreme intellectuality made many people think him altogether too
exotic a creature. His versatility and eloquence were indeed marvelled
at, but the run-of-the-mill university staff tended to regard him with
suspicion and even went out of their way to avoid him.
It took people who were themselves out of the ordinary and intellec-
tually self-confident to engage in a more intensive and lasting relation-
ship with the extravagant son of a wine-merchant and a singer. In addition
to Siegfried Kracauer and Max Horkheimer, these included a number
of people of his own age, in particular Leo Löwenthal, Peter von
Haselberg, Carl Dreyfus and, later, Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch.
All these men had more or less direct interests in philosophy. At this
period, Adorno may well have recognized that his experience and know-
ledge could not match that of older men like Kracauer, Benjamin and
Horkheimer. Nevertheless, it is clear from the correspondence that he
attempted to meet them on an equal footing. Despite his youth, he did
not lack in self-confidence.

Apprenticeship with his master and teacher

Adorno’s attitude was quite different with regard to another person
who would be of great importance for his future. This was the Viennese
composer Alban Berg, with whom he was to have a relationship of
growing intensity over the coming months and years.
Berg was born in Vienna on 9 February 1885. His career as a com-
poser in association with the circle around Arnold Schoenberg began
around 1910, when he finished his String Quartet, op. 3, and after the
Five Orchestral Songs on Postcards from Peter Altenberg, op. 4, had
been performed in Vienna. These works were then followed by the
Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, op. 5. Berg obtained celebrity and
then recognition with his opera Wozzeck, for which he had completed
the orchestration in April 1921. When the opera was given its first
performance on 14 December 1925 in Berlin under Erich Kleiber, it
triggered a huge controversy. Thanks to the furore, it received twenty-
one performances. Adorno and Benjamin were present at one of them,
and both were deeply impressed by the work.^3 Further compositions by
Berg include the Lyric Suite for string quartet, first performed by the